Trainer Darren Weir extends his lead in the Melbourne premiership with a winning treble

Darren Weir consolidated his position at the top of the Melbourne metropolitan trainers' premiership with a Boxing Day treble at Caulfield, bringing his total for the season to 20 and stretching his lead to four.

Normally training titles are won by the big city-based stables and Weir, who has bases at Ballarat and Warrnambool, invariably plays down his prospects in the championship race.

But the class of horses in his care has improved markedly in recent years, and while he is still prepared to travel far and wide for a winner - he had runners at Penshurst, Nhill and Geelong on Thursday as well as Caulfield - if he carries on at his current rate he will give the title a shake.

Weir took the numerical honours on Boxing Day, but the main race of the afternoon - the listed Christmas Stakes (1200metres) - went to South Australian raider Karacatis ($8), trained by Richard Jolly and ridden by one of the most impressive young jockeys in the state, Damian Lane.

Jolly was an absentee, preferring to stay in Adelaide where he had numerous runners, and he had asked Lane to keep his sprinter in fourth or fifth spot before making his run in the straight.

But Karacatis jumped so well from the gates that Lane found himself in front and so he decided to take full advantage.

His gamble paid off - just - as he nosed out the fast-finishing Richie's Vibe.

''When you lob [in front] that easy, like he did, it would be silly to drag him back,'' Lane said.

''I wasn't worried that the trainer wasn't here - he's a very good trainer and when he sends them over here they are here for a reason, as you saw today.''

Brad Rawiller partnered the opening pair of Weir's winners - Rainbow Storm ($7) in the Ken Sturt Handicap (2000metres), and So Hasty ($4.60, Dennis Hanrahan Handicap (1400metres) - while Dean Yendall scored on the consistent Flying Hostess ($5) in one of the day's other feature events, the Frank O'Brien Handicap (1600metres) for mares.

Rawiller and Weir were not the only duo to notch multiples at Caulfield.

Former champion apprentice Katelyn Mallyon won the opening two events - the first on a lucky chance ride for Robert Smerdon on $26 shot Empress O'Reilly in the Joe Brown Plate, the second aboard $3.20 favourite Danestroem in the Allan Wicks Handicap for Cranbourne trainer Michael Kent.

Flying Hostess will continue to add to her admirable record - she has four wins and six placings from 14 starts - while So Hasty, a lightly raced three-year-old filly by Domesday, will continue to work through the grades.

But Rainbow Storm, a commanding six-length winner, will seek to step up in trip and status.

The son of Desert King (the sire of Melbourne Cup legend Makybe Diva) will be aimed at the Tasmanian Derby, a listed event over 2200 metres in February.

Rawiller went to the front early and rated Rainbow Storm well before kicking clear in the straight to win easily.

''He's a tough horse, he needs working,'' said Weir.

''Unfortunately, last start the saddle slipped. I reckon I was a bit soft on him going into that last run and he was a bit above himself. We have hardened right up on him since then.

''We have had the Tassie Derby in the back of our mind and if things keep progressing we will head that way.''

Mallyon, the champion apprentice in the 2011-12 season, was out of action for nine months after sustaining serious injuries in a race fall at Flemington in May 2012.

While she has been riding a steady stream of winners since her return, she has not hogged the headlines as she did before her fall at headquarters.

Now, she says, she is full of confidence. She got the ride on Empress O'Reilly because the jockey originally booked, another two-kilogram claiming apprentice, Thomas Sadler, could not make the 55-kilogram weight, and she had to survive a protest from Ryan Maloney aboard runner-up Fontein Ruby, from the Tony Vasil yard, before holding on to the prize.

''I have ridden a couple of winners in the past couple of weeks and really got my confidence back,'' Mallyon said.

''You think you are fine all the time, but when you start to get on winners your confidence skyrockets and you feel you can do anything.

''You lose so much momentum [when on the sideline], and nine months is such a long time. I think I have been riding well, but getting the winners under my belt I want to keep it [going].''

Damien Oliver had rides in seven of the eight races and had to wait until the final event for his Boxing Day winner, courtesy of English import Initiator for Warrnambool trainer Aaron Purcell. Purcell was not at Caulfield either, having been laid low after being kicked by a horse on Thursday morning.